The combination of polymers and ceramics in hybrid materials is an active area of materials research. These composite materials join the benefits of polymers, such as flexibility, toughness, and ease of processing, with those of ceramics, such as hardness, durability, and thermal stability. By modifying the selection and ratios of the polymers and ceramics, hybrid materials having a wide variety of structural and chemical characteristics can be formed. This can be of significant utility in the medical device arena.
Nanotechnology is an emerging field that uses the principles of science and engineering to fabricate materials or structures of dimensions in the nanometer scale. Some nanostructures currently under investigation include quantum dots and wires, nanoscale self-assemblies and thin films, nanocrystals, nanotubes, nanowires, nanorods, nanofoams, nanospheres and nanofibers. The nanoscale materials can display unusual and unique property profiles as compared to macromaterials. Physical, chemical and biological properties such as unique shape, orientation, surface chemistry, topology and reactivity exhibited by these materials originate from their small dimensions. These material properties can translate into unusual electrical, optical, magnetic, mechanical, thermal and biological properties for these materials.
Currently medical device catheters, and other types of medical devices where a smaller size is preferred, have a need to further reduce size and mass. This reduction in size and mass may allow for enhanced product performance leading to minimized patient trauma and recovery time. Attempts have been made to incorporate ceramic nanostructures into polymer matrices for the purpose of improving both the durability and surface characteristics (e.g., abrasion resistance) of the hybrid polymer. However, traditional nanostructures have been difficult to effectively incorporate into the polymer matrix. A suitable solution to this problem is desired.